P. T. Barnum, founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, is the central character in this fantastic musical retelling of how he came to revolutionize the American circus. Michael Gracey’s directorial debut film showcases amazing talent from Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Zendaya, and so many more.
The Greatest Showman follows the story of P. T. Barnum as he rises from being a poverty stricken child in love, to becoming the showman he always dreamed of being, as well as the discrimination and hatred felt to the ‘Sideshow Freaks’, and Barnum’s tour with Jenny Lind.
This is a film that fittingly plays fast and loose with the term “True Story”, it certainly seems to use the Disney method of adaptation by not showing the worst moments of the tale, or even avoiding details that would potentially ruin any moral the film tried to express. It is widely known that the real Barnum was a fraudster, who actively attempted to dupe his audience with the Fiji Mermaid or the horrific display he made of the slave Joice Heth, claiming her to being 161 years old. Director Michael Gracey described it as a story based on the life of P. T. Barnum rather than a factual depiction.
Within the world of The Greatest Showman, Barnum’s worst crime is to trick the banks into loaning him money using ten cargo ships as collateral, omitting the part that they were resting below the South China Sea. The film sets up Barnum as a struggling hard worker who builds his way up from an orphaned child to a young man with his own home, with the motivation of falling in love with Charity Hallett so that he may give her all she needs. This is a man who the audience can appreciate, a man who commits a few cons in the name of entertainment. In this world, instead of showing what he actually used to create the mermaid, his daughter suggests one as part of his menagerie, or a unicorn.
Throughout the film, we see the struggles the Barnum family endures, including social belittlement for hiring the ‘Sideshow Freaks’, the familial discontent from Charity’s father, and the backlash of Barnum’s actions by favouring Jenny Lind over his own circus. At no point does the story feel stale, as if waiting for what comes next. It touches on the lives of the performers, using ‘Come Alive’ as a passing torch to give them a focus in the film, and then emphasised with ‘This Is Me’.
Hugh Jackman, as the leading Ringmaster, is perfectly cast with his ability to make a dislikeable character a relatable one, even during Barnum’s decent into greed and cruelty towards his attraction. During a performance by Jenny Lind, portrayed by Rebecca Ferguson and voiced by Loren Allred, Jackman manages to express every emotion without a sound or motion, and captures the effect Allred’s voice has on the audience.
The soundtrack by Benj Paske and Justin Paul is an interesting one, as they decided to go against expectations and use a contemporary sound as a way of conveying how Barnum’s act was not restricted by his time. And while the soundtrack is incredible from start to finish, Hugh Jackman did not suit the more Pop themed songs, performing far greater in the grandiose songs such as ‘A Million Dreams’.
Playing a composite character, Zac Efron as Phillip Carlyle, partly based on James Anthony Bailey, is a joy in his fifth musical film, the second standalone film outside the High School Music franchise since Hairspray in 2007. Much like his character in Hairspray, Efron does not play the perfect man, rather a high society playwright who joins Barnum’s circus out of curiosity. Carlyle is tested quickly as he falls for the trapeze artist Anne Wheeler, portrayed by Zendaya, and faces the social struggles of being associated with a low society act, misfits, and a black woman. The two display a great act of acrobatic stunts they performed themselves during the duet ‘Rewrite The Stars’, where Carlyle sheds his fear of being cast out, going on to becoming a better man.
The highlights of this film deservedly go to Loren Allred’s ‘Never Enough’, Keala Settle as the Bearded Lady, and the dance off between leads Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron in ‘Other Side’, with the real highlight being the bartender during the song, played by choreographer Daniel Campos.
Royston D A 